In 1947 as India attained
freedom she inherited a robust railway transportation, irrigation and education system amongst many others and on
which India could have built an empire that could have been the envy of the
world given that India was largely untouched by the world war and its attendant
destruction and death.
India also had a rich heritage that went back several centuries and a foundation of knowledge – even if by physical presence – that could have been leveraged by her as can be seen in this tweet.
https://twitter.com/tskrishnan/status/1287571588414443520?s=20
India got in Nehru a PM who for all his faults was in office for 17 years literally unchallenged. He did promote a scientific temperament, called the Bhakra Nangal dam as one of the temples of modern India and definitely wanted such Indian “temples” to be built to integrate technology, modern thought, progress, development which would result in India leap frogging to the top given the human capital and market it offered itself.
Nehru was a man imbued in western thought, culture, lifestyle and when he became PM likely identified himself more with the departing British than anything Indian. He was like the British sahibs, ruling over the brown natives, except he had the moral authority to do so as an Indian. He was disconnected from the hoi polloi mentally and ruled like a benevolent king would with his subjects. Dancing and mingling with the masses were the prize the subjects got to feel happy and not think they were still ruled like by a white man.
Yet the man also wrote a brilliant book “Discovery of India” that spoke of the rich heritage of India, its culture, the Hindu heritage and many more. But again, he was a disconnected intellect, easily bored by the masses. He propounded a vision of holding India by its bootstraps and pulling it up so high that she was given a seat at the high table globally. But that required hard work at developing the economy, farming, industries, education etc and it needed hands on involvement. The time required for India to become developed enough so that the global spotlight fell on India and in turn Nehru would take too long. He did not have that patience.
Nehru did what was easier to do. He pulled himself up by his bootstraps and felt that his standing globally if taken to great heights would automatically bestow upon India the same greatness. A combination of this delusion, belief, naivety, and success with efforts like the Non-Aligned Movement, the way he was feted and welcomed globally convinced him of his own strategy. That – if Nehru is great, India automatically is great.
The benevolent king which he believed he was gave out largesse to countries like China and wanted to do the same with Pakistan and lorded over all neighbours in a similar manner. Luckily, he had a brilliant team with stalwarts like Vallabhai Patel, John Mathai, CD Deshmukh, BR Ambedkar, SP Mookerjee, CH Bhabha and his second cabinet had stalwarts like GB Pant, LB Shastri but the talent deficit was beginning. Later he had C Subramanian. Any other name one recalls were by that time caste/ religion/ regional heavy weight politicians. Stalwarts they were not.
India having embarked upon the path of socialism, friendly with Russia, the communists were snapping at the heels of Nehru and he needed to keep them at bay. He gave them plush jobs to handle stuff like culture, education, arts, etc which suited them perfectly. Both were happy.
The consequence of this was that these worthies had to write textbooks and espouse on Indian heritage. Being atheists, more aligned to China/ Russia all along they were lazy to research and work hard. Instead they decided to promote ideology hoping to gain power.
The leftist groups decided to write what they felt should be the history, culture, society, architecture, ethos etc of India. The easy and first thing that they could remember was the preceding rule by the British and before that the Mughals.
Nobody seemed to realize that India was Bharat earlier, was a civilization spanning over 5,000 years and which had been conquered, in parts or as a whole at various times by the Romans, Portuguese, French with the Mughals and British ruling for the better part of 350 ~ 400 years. Nobody realized that a 5,000-year-old country would have a lot more to talk about herself.
The temples especially gave a glimpse into the engineering and architectural marvels of India and unlike in most places globally India has the largest number of ancient sites that even today are in operation, functioning and being used.
The 7.2 mtrs long iron pillar in Delhi is 3000 kgs in weight, has inscriptions in Sanskrit and in over 1600 year has never rusted bearing testimony to the science and technology of that era. The heritage sites at Nalanda, Hampi, Ajanta/Ellora, Rani ki Vav vary anywhere between 900 to 2000 years old. A Jantar Mantar which is an engineering scientific marvel in practice is 300 years old.
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| Rani Ki Vav |
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| Hampi, Karnataka |
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| Iron Pillar, Delhi |
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| Jantar Mantar, Jaipur |
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| Ajanta/ Ellora, Maharashtra |
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| Nalanda, Bihar |
The knowledge base which if one were to look at most customs, practises with an open mind analytically would show that they had science, logic, psychology, and some practical aspects based on the older times. As in any society there were the negatives and thanks partly to the British and then the post 1947 Indian political leadership many of these were reduced/removed with legal and social effort. Nobody felt the need to analyse and espouse these aspects of Bharat except to create a negative image.
With the partition of India on religious grounds there was understandably an effort to cool down emotions, keep the Muslim community assured of their future in India. Add to this the obsession of Nehru to appear as that above all omnipotent of India and the world statesman, India ended up with a thought process of trying to be more loyal than the king.
Consequently, the entire narrative, positioning of India itself as a country became a falsehood. Many of those who wrote this narrative were from the majority community, but none seems to have realized or raised questions on the future impact of their actions. The result - India became known for Mughal architecture, Mughal food, Mughal hospitality, Mughal Music, Mughal Poetry and since these worthies were so enamored of the British it was English Literature.
Deliberately or wanting to appear above the normal human biases the entire eco-system brushed aside, ignored, and failed to give importance to Indian history as it related to Bharat. Generation after generation of Indians were fed upon the recent 400 years as the REAL history and pedigree of India. Nobody for a minute realised that 400 years of Muslim and Christian rule, power and domination had resulted in an amalgamation of cultures, habits, togetherness and let alone wiping clean, Hinduism had thrived, grown and the other faiths had imbibed many of its practices and the country still officially spoke of being a “Majority” “Hindu” nation. While examples around the country are numerous here is one telling example. Started in 1852 this is the board a 168-year-old church proudly displays.
For those who cannot read
Kannada the board says – “Shri Christ Jesus Namaha”
Such pictures are not uncommon esp in southern India.
Watch this video from around 9 minutes to 19 minutes to get a glimpse into what Bharat means – close your eyes and listen – it is the words that are important, not who is saying it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RHqaIQDbQQ
THIS is the REAL India which one can call Bharat. This is the India that the commentators, historians, communists post 1947 ignored since this showed the Bharat, its history, its inclusiveness, its embrace of everybody and everything like water. If the true story were to be written then the power, position, and the ability to play god to the masses, more so the minority would be lost. So, Bharat became India with a 400-year history of Mughals and British.
With time and the degeneration of politics this became bigger and powerful as different groups, parties, communities realised that there was a cake to be divided and power to be gained. A cabal formed controlling the narrative. With no counter narrative or even objections the belief that the people had truly become like lambs took hold.
In effect this whole story turned into a anti Hindu tirade and as Mr. Anand Ranganathan bluntly says – the system turned this into self-loathing. But if these folks had read the history of Bharat instead of India, they would know the real India – Bharat. Having climbed the Tiger they had created this whole cabal is unable to climb down and getting trapped in the Anti Hindu, Pro India, Anti Bharat chakravyuha.
In reality, Bharat had no lambs. The people were just waiting for a pivot. The wheels had to start turning and the 2012 Delhi rape gave that final push for the wheel to turn, the IAC movement pushed the wheel, Modi with his entry signaled the arrival of the pivot and the rest as they say is now history.
What we now see is a Bharat that is comfortable with its own culture, history, customs and for many it is like home coming. They now believe they also belong to the country, are stakeholders, have a contribution to make and they will celebrate the country and its success, participate in correcting its problems and it’s no longer “We the people versus the government and politicians who dispense patronage”. This is work in progress, just started, and will take time to bear fruit.
The unintended consequence was that the Congress party got dragged into this quagmire and with each succeeding generation of the owner family their personal disconnect with Bharat became wider and wider.
Listening to the above talk, one feels that Nehru understood this, Indira knew about this, Rajiv had heard about this, Sonia had no clue about this and for Rahul and his team, India is just an idea, whatever that means and Bharat? Who is that? It is just some slogan the BJP uses. The veteran Congressmen and some of their progeny are aware of the Bharat in India and that is why the deep fissure between them and Rahul and team.
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